Sticky things

Subtraction by addition

The County has a lot of buildings. Most of them need repair. Some more than others. It has neither the money to fix them, nor the ability to part with any to raise cash to restore the buildings it may think essential.

Every few years, municipal staff assemble a list of buildings (or properties) and propose selling them. But it tends not to go anywhere because history/untapped potential/community- something/misty-water-coloured-memories intervene to change the subject. Eventually, the list flutters away in the wind, and Council finds something else to worry about.

Ahh, spring. Undaunted Shire Hall is back with a new list of properties to sell. A new approach. A new enthusiasm. And, with a unique twist this year—a proposal for a new building. Subtraction by addition.

The newest list was unveiled at a council committee meeting last week. It was described as a series of dominoes—each move potentially impacting others. County buildings are complicated that way.

Specifically, the plan proposes the sale of pits in Milford and Cherry Valley and a public works garage on Lake Street in Picton. With the proceeds of such potential sales, the municipality would then build a new works facility providing truck storage, servicing and offices on Sandy Hook Road.

Councillor Nieman worries about the look. He says that embarking on a new building project, likely costing several millions of dollars, isn’t something Council should rush into. He adds that selling the Lake Street property would force Council’s hand, as employees and equipment need a place to reside.

“It’s not something I can sell to the public,” said Nieman.

Operational services manager Troy Gilmour recognized the council member’s concerns, but suggested that such a project could be phased in.

Councillor Nieman urged his colleagues to defer the decision until they could tour the properties and see for themselves the issues, challenges and opportunities. The tour and report are expected to be completed in June.

Council did, however, manage to begin the process of parting with another building—two buildings, actually. A first, perhaps. A big step. The old fire hall in Hillier has been sitting idle for years. However, selling this building is complicated because the town hall’s water supply is tied to the former fire hall. To accommodate a sale, municipal staff propose installing a water storage tank in the town hall.

Council also successfully transferred unspent funds from 2024 to be used to fund renovations to the former Bloomfield fire hall to enable the facility to be used as office space. The County currently rents two floors in the Edward Building and would like to reduce that footprint.

Digging holes and filling them back in

The County has a quarry and five pits. (A quarry is defined as a bedrock excavation, while pits produce mostly sand and gravel.) Most of the available material has already been extracted from these holes. But in recent decades, the cost of disposing of soil has increased. It has now become a good business to have a hole in which to dispose of excess soil. Such is the circle of pit life.

The County has one quarry in Demorestville (Sophiasburgh) and five pits. Only two of these six holes are currently being used to extract material; both are located on Ridge Road. One is mostly depleted, while the other is largely (two-thirds) within an EP zone. Yet it produces most of the sand the municipality uses, plus some gravel. It has about a million tonnes of material remaining.

The municipality acquired this pit in 2009. There is $2.2 million remaining on the loan used to finance the purchase.

The Milford pit is mainly depleted, and further exploitation is constrained due to its location along the Black River’s shoreline, an environmentally sensitive wetland.

The Crowe pit (Sandy Hook Road) and Cherry Valley pit were depleted many years ago according to the report. The Pickering pit (further west on Sandy Hook Road) was closed to extraction in 2023, but continues to receive excess soil. Continuing to use this site to dispose of this material at this pit and potentially in Sophiasburgh, Crowe, and Cherry Valley could save the municipality between $0.5 million and $6 million.

The County’s lone limestone quarry in Demorestville (Sophiasburgh) has not been actively mined since 2011. The cost to bring this quarry back to production exceeds the market value of these materials.

Municipal staff recommend giving up the extraction licences from the Crowe and Cherry Valley pits as well as the Sophiasburgh quarry. But selling them is contingent on replacing the garage at Cherry Valley as well as fuel and storage facilities at the Crowe pit.

Relinquishing licences on three pits would save $1,200 a year.

While just one pit is currently producing aggregate, the remaining facilities have gained other functions over time. Staff are recommending relocating these functions to a new central facility on Sandy Hook Road. Until this is done, staff are recommending only the sale of the Milford pit—maybe the Cherry Valley pit—and to use the proceeds of the sale to fund a building reserve. See previous story Sticky things – part one.

One day, a more comprehensive pit consolidation plan may emerge, but for now, the County will continue to fill holes that were dug decades ago.